Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. followed up with their own intense battle, but neither underdog was able to quite pull off the upset in the end.
Cotto and Mayweather didn't really provide much entertainment until the middle rounds when Cotto was at his best. Mayweather frustrated Cotto early with his unique defensive style. Blocking his body with the same defensive posture perfected by "The Mongoose" Archie Moore, Mayweather leaned back with his shoulder up and twisted out of the way of the worst shots from Cotto.
Cotto landed a few great shots to the body, but Mayweather kept a sharp jab in his face and found the right hook-left uppercut combo frequently. Cotto went back to his corner in the first with a welt already visibly forming near his left temple.
Cotto began finding more holes in the second round, but Mayweather thwarted his advances by ducking down to Cotto's waist and clinching to a break. Cotto caught Mayweather against the rope at one point and picked him right up off his feet at another. Still, nothing seemed to really hurt Mayweather. Rounds 3 and 4 went to Floyd due to his ability to land more accurate shots and stay out of Cotto's effective range.
Cotto unleashed his best on Mayweather in the fifth round to no avail. Mayweather won most of the exchanges working behind a nice mix of quick jabs and power jabs. Cotto did manage to bloody Floyd's nose, though. His aggression might have been enough for at least one judge to give Cotto the round.
Arguably the pound-for-pound greatest boxer in the world, Floyd Mayweather, returned to the ring last night (Sat., May 5, 2012) to do battle against Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the super welterweight championship on the line.
Mayweather came in with a jail sentence hanging over his head and a 42-0 career record to protect against a younger, stronger and hugely dangerous fighter in Cotto. He would need to dig deep into his bag of tricks to pull out victory number 43 but ultimately, that's exactly what he did.
The two pugilists engaged in a classic war that needed all 12 rounds and 36 minutes to be decided. "Money" shot out of the gate early with his usual stick and move style that gave Cotto trouble, enough to put him down on the scorecards in the first few rounds.
But as the bout wore on, the Puerto Rican started taking pages out of his opponents book, playing defense and staying loose on the outside. It worked, too, flustering Mayweather and leading to a few lost rounds in the middle of the contest. The seemingly inevitable happened, though, as "Money May" stepped on the gas pedal and got to counter punching, dipping his head behind his shoulder and avoiding the majority of Cotto's big punches.
Ultimately, the outcome was never in doubt ... not really. Cotto had come to fight and put his best foot forward, providing perhaps the toughest test of Mayweather's career. Ultimately, though, the best boxer in the world maintained his spot as the king of the sport with a unanimous decision victory by scores of 117-111, 117-111, 118-110.
